


"We're your friends, Lacey. You could never do anything to make us hate you."

by themanicpixieblackgirl



Series: Writing Between the Lines [2]
Category: Twisted (TV)
Genre: Canon Character of Color, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Getting Back Together, Multi, friends back each other up, multi shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-19
Updated: 2013-08-19
Packaged: 2017-12-24 01:09:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/933327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themanicpixieblackgirl/pseuds/themanicpixieblackgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sarita and Phoebe handle Doug and Eloise for Lacey, and Archie tries to be a good friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	"We're your friends, Lacey. You could never do anything to make us hate you."

**Author's Note:**

> Again, this is me rewriting stuff based on what I saw of sneak peek 1x11, which I didn't like. I should have made these all consecutive chapters of the same work, but I hadn't expected to keep writing, so sorry 'bout that.

Lacey choosing Danny over Archie was wrong and weird, and Sarita is definitely going to have a talk with her about how not okay it was that she had to find out about her and Danny through a mass-emailed sex tape, but right now, she’s on the hunt for the creep responsible for the mass-emailed sex tape.  
Doug and Eloise are in the broadcasting lab after school and are caught off guard when Sarita walks into the room, locks the door, and rolls up the sleeves of her sweater. Doug seems almost resigned to his fate when Sarita walks across the room, grabs his collar, and holds him against the wall behind him. Flyers and announcements pinned to the wall fall and flutter to the floor, and thumbtack heads dig into his back, but he doesn’t think Sarita will be, at all, sympathetic to his plight.  
“Okay, listen up, creep.” She says, and her voice is a low growl.  
Doug interrupts her.  
“I know what you’re going to say, but I wasn’t the one who sent the video to everyone.” He says, and it comes out in one rushed breath.  
“Doesn’t matter who did. It matters that you took the video in the first place.” She says, tightening her hold on his collar. Her grip plus his anxiety is making it harder for him to breathe.  
“I’m the one who did it.” That weird girl with the creepy smile and the greasy hair speaks up. She thinks she’s being brave, and she says, “I sent it to everyone because I’m so sick of you people walking around the school like you own it.”  
Sarita’s eyebrow lifts, and her grip gets tighter around Doug’s neck, but Eloise continues.  
“Lacey Porter is a bitch. She had it coming.”  
Doug whimpers, and he’s about half a second away from hyperventilating. Even he knows that was the wrong thing to say, and getting to play Dungeons and Dragons after school with the Chess Club so wasn’t worth this. The door is locked, and he’s trapped in an empty room with Lacey Porter’s pet tiger. Lacey was being nice. Sarita will have Eloise wishing for Lacey’s brand of “bitch”.  
Outside the door, Phoebe’s looking out, and when she hears a high pitched squeal coming from inside it, she just hums louder and goes back to her phone. If she’s not in the room, she can honestly say she never *saw* Sarita do anything.

“…And?” Phoebe asks expectantly when Sarita comes out of the room. She’s wiping her hands with a cleansing wipe and wondering at the fact that a human scalp can produce as much grease as Eloise’s does.  
“What did you do? What is Doug going to do?” Phoebe wants to know.  
“He and that Eloise girl are going to find everyone they sent that video to and make them delete it.”  
“But that’s so many people.” Phoebe says.  
“Well, then I guess they’re going to have a busy week—it’s not like they have anything better to do.”  
“No one’s going to want to delete that video, Sarita.”  
“Yeah, and no one’s going to want to have 'possession and distribution of child pornography' charges on their permanent records, either.”  
Phoebe’s smile is pleased as she links her arm through Sarita’s.  
“You didn’t hurt them, did you?” She asks, wondering vaguely if she could talk herself and Sarita out of trouble by writing and directing an anti-bullying PSA.  
“I didn’t leave any bruises that won’t fade in, like, a day. They can pretend they gave each other hickeys.”  
Phoebe places her hand over her heart and pretends to tear up. “There’s so much evil inside your little shell of cuteness. It just…it makes me so proud.”  
Sarita rolls her eyes.  
“Eloise hates us for being popular—like it’s our fault being anti-social and fashion-rejective aren’t en vogue.” She says, “You know, she would get along really well with Jo Masterson.”

Lacey isn't surprised that Sarita hasn't responded to any of the texts she's sent today, but that doesn't mean it doesn't still hurt. Friends are supposed to stick by you no matter what. Phoebe texted back for both of them, saying that they were going to be working on some project after school, which Lacey isn’t dumb enough to buy, but she gets the hint. She came straight home after school and slipped into sweats and prepped a tub of ice cream. Danny wanted her to go with him to check on Jo, but he's going to have to ~forgive~ her for not caring much for Jo's comfort right now. She has successfully exiled herself from her circle of friends, and no one will speak to her. Which is why she’s especially surprised to find Archie knocking at her door.  
He picks at the last button on his jacket for a bit before deciding to just shove both of his hands into his pockets. "Can I come in?" He asks, and Lacey nods mutely. Her mother isn’t home yet, but Lacey doesn’t doubt that Judy has already heard about the video, and Lacey doesn’t even know how she’ll begin to explain any of this to her mother or her sister.  
Oh, god, Clara. Who knows what the kids at her school and at her gym will be—or, already have been saying.  
Lacey closes her eyes and shakes her head to clear away the thoughts of a disappointed mother and a confused and possibly humiliated little sister, and when she opens them, Archie is still there, standing just inside her living room.  
“Do you want to come to the party with me tonight?” He asks.  
She doesn’t know what she was expecting from him, but it definitely wasn’t an invitation to a party that only earlier today he’d made clear was going to be a private one.  
“Honestly?” She asks, and when he affirms, she says, “No. I don’t really feel like holding it together in front of everyone right now.”  
“You won’t have to. No one will say anything.” He says, and she knows it’s true; out of respect for their captain, none of the boys will say anything about him showing up to their party with the ex-girlfriend who ditched him for a murderer.  
“Why are you doing this? Why are you here?”  
He says, simply, “I was your friend before I became your boyfriend.”  
“But, you have every right to be angry with me.”  
“I am. But…I’m more bothered by the fact that there are creeps at our school who would do something like that to anyone—let alone someone I…um, yeah, whoever sent it out is a jackass.” He says, and Lacey’s smile is full of hurt and regret and memories and wishing.  
She spent five years carving out a space for herself in Normal, and Archie and Regina and Sarita gave her normal in a way that wasn’t a pretense. Archie was the leader of his group of friends, and he was all confidence and self-assured smirks, but when he first asked her out, he was blushing, and fidgeting, and nervous, and shy. Everyone knew that Archie Yates wasn’t shy, but Lacey’s Archie was. Archie gave her sweet, kind, Normal, and he is still offering to be there for her. And she gave him up for Danny. Who’s giving her up for Jo. She blinks away the tears.  
“You’re…you’re a really great guy.” She says, and she means it.  
“Yeah.” He says bitterly, because look where that’s gotten him. “We should probably get going. The guys will start to wonder why I’m so late.”  
“Okay, just give me a sec to throw something on.”  
At the diner, Lacey stays fairly quiet. It took a while for the jokes to pick up and for everyone to get more comfortable with her presence, but they did, and she’s here, in a booth with Archie on her left and Sarita on her right, and they’re congratulating the boys for getting to Regionals. Archie didn’t tense or flinch when Lacey laid her head on his shoulder, and she doesn’t know why that small reaction, or lack thereof, makes her so emotional. Archie, Sarita, and Phoebs are her friends, and right now, she’s thinking that she really doesn’t deserve them. Maybe it would be a good idea if she left in a bit, but for now, she’ll enjoy having her head rest on Archie’s shoulder and holding Sarita’s hand tightly under the table.  
It’s all going really well.  
Until a silence falls over the diner.  
The bell over the door rings, and everyone starts glancing from Lacey to Archie.  
To Danny.


End file.
